A Goose for Christmas 21st December 2025

For twenty five years (1987-2012) between the months of September and March I carried out a monthly WeBS count  on behalf of the BTO at West Wittering in Sussex.The main species to feature in this count was a large flock (up to 2000) of Dark bellied Brent Geese that frequented fields especially set aside for them.

Occasional excitement would come with the welcome discovery, twice, in 2007 and 2009 of a Red breasted Goose from Siberia, but otherwise it would be a single Black Brant, the North American cousin of the Dark bellied Brents, found on a number of occasions in the West Wittering flock and likewise also the odd Pale bellied Brent Goose caught up amongst its dark bellied cousins.

Pale bellied Brent Geese breed in Arctic Canada, Greenland, Svarlbard and Franz Joseph Land and come to spend the winter mainly in Ireland, with a majority inhabiting Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland whilst lesser numbers reach northwestern coasts of Scotland and England and a small wintering population is also present in Northumberland.

For Christmas and New Year we usually return to Scotland and this year we decided on Garlieston a small eighteenth century, remote  coastal village located on the Machars Peninsula in the county of Wigtownshire in Dumfries and Galloway.

Our cottage looks out to a tidal bay just a few metres distant and at low tide the evocative calls of Curlew and Redshank feeding on the exposed sands can be clearly heard through the windows.

The bay can, like many in Scotland at this time of year in the depths of winter  look desolate and barren  but even  such an unwelcoming prospect possesses a raw beauty of both sound and aspect with the trembling anxious calls of Curlews coming from the distant sea's edge across an emptiness of sand and rock below an ice blue sky, the bird's wild cries an evocative adjunct to the cold and stark aspect of Garlieston in winter.

Garlieston

By noon the tide was full  and being so much further north the light was already commencing its descent into the golden hour before fading towards dusk. Amongst a scatter of Redshanks and Oystercatchers a small gathering of brent geese were guzzling weed from the rocky shore and a swift check in my binoculars revealed they had white flanks, the contrast with their darker upperbodies further highlighted as they caught the sun's rays. They were Pale bellied Brent Geese.

So familiar with the darker tones of the brent geese I had counted for many years in Sussex they appeared that much more attractive, the contrasting shades of dark and pale plumage bringing a pleasing variety denied to their darker bellied cousins.

There were eighteen of them and I stood partially concealed by a waist high wall to watch as they fed and bickered amongst themselves.At this hour I had the shore to myself, the dreaded dog walkers were absent on this Monday before Christmas, the village seemingly deserted of human kind and in thrall to winter when few come here to holiday but we are the exception this Christmas.

All geese  are, for most of the year sociable creatures and prefer to be with their own kind and the more the better.The brent I was looking at were no exception and kept in close company feeding but still with time for the ganders to mildly protest with extended neck and partially opened bill if another breached its personal space.

I could see no evidence of juveniles amongst them so this past year must not have been a good one for the survival of any young. Brents breeding success is cyclical whereby they have on average one good breeding year in every three and is dependent upon the number of Arctic lemmings which share their Siberian breeding grounds. The geese and lemmings have a number of predators in common the chief of which is the Arctic Fox with gulls, skuas and even Snowy Owls also partial to young geese as a substitute if there are no lemmings available. If it is a productive year for lemmings then they will form the bulk of prey and there is less attention paid to the young geese which means a fair proportion survive to migrate south with their parents.

I subsequently met a local birder who told me these Pale bellied Brent Geese originate from the large congregation that winter on Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland, not that distant as a brent goose flies, and have formed a regular winter feature in the last few years here at Garlieston.    

A Lesser Crested Tern at Dawlish Warren 4th December 2025

On the afternoon of Wednesday the 3rd of December a rare tern was discovered and photographed on the Exe Estuary at Dawlish Warren in Devon. Initially identified as a Royal Tern it was subsequently re-identified later that same day from photos as a mega  rare Lesser Crested Tern of which only ten have ever been recorded in Britain and the last seen was all of twenty years ago when one frequented the Norfolk and Suffolk coast from the 16th to the 21st of July 2005.

Lesser Crested Terns are similar in size to a Sandwich Tern but have an orange bill and their rump and tail are grey rather than white. They breed in sub tropical parts of the world from the Red Sea across the Indian Ocean to the western Pacific and Australia and there is a significant population on the southern coast of the Mediterranean, on two islands off Libya. In  winter they migrate to the coast of West Africa.

They are a rare vagrant to Europe but have occasionally bred in Italy, Spain, France and England.The last time this happened in England it involved a celebrated female that returned for 14 years to a Sandwich Tern colony on  the Farne Islands from 1984-1997 and paired with a Sandwich Tern to raise several hybrid young over a number of years.

Many birders went to see this bird but this was before I discovered twitching.  

Lesser Crested Tern has been a notable absentee from my British List so it was imperative that I made the effort to go and see this individual as soon as possible. Its true identity was established too late for me to go on Wednesday so I resolved to travel to Dawlish first thing on Thursday.

I rang Graham J who I knew also needed it and we arranged to rendezvous at 5am on Thursday morning in Bristol as Graham would be coming from near Heathrow and me from northwest Oxfordshire.

All went to plan and at 5.15 am I transferred to Graham's car, leaving my car  in a secluded residential road on the outskirts of Bristol.Our early start was in order to arrive at Dawlish before dawn so we had the best chance of seeing the tern if, as suspected it had roosted in the estuary.

One stop for coffee and surviving an unforecasted torrential downpour on the motorway found us driving into a partially flooded Dawlish Warren Seaward car park with a number of other, presumably birder's cars already parked there. It was 6.30 am and still dark but thankfully not raining.

Getting our gear together we set off on the mile walk to the disused hide which was the location of choice to look out over the estuary to try and locate the tern.At first there was an obvious track but this soon ran out and then I managed to lose sight of Graham and was on my own in semi darkness getting lost amongst the dunes, sandbanks and marram grass, trying to follow trails that went nowhere but eventually from the top of the dunes I could see the hide in the distance and set an uncertain course towards it across a golf course.

I found Graham already there and joined him at the end of a line of birders standing outside the hide all staring steadfastly at a bleak and cold Exe Estuary.

Any sign of the tern Graham?

Nothing yet.

Five minutes later there came a shout from down the line.

I have got a tern flying in. I think it's the Lesser Crested.

A brief moment of silence ensued and then came the words everyone wanted to hear.

Yes it's definitely the bird.

For once there was no panic as the number of craft and mooring buoys in the estuary made it easy to give directions as to where the tern was and everyone got onto it fairly quickly as it flew back and fore fishing. It was as simple as that and the time was just before 8am.

The tern caught a fish which it tossed into the air and swallowed whilst still flying and then glided down to settle on a large yellow buoy some way off from where we were standing. I tried a couple of shots with the camera but the dull light and distance ensured the result was far from memorable.

The tern looked set to remain for some time on its perch and actually went to sleep.There is only so long one can look at an immobile tern, even one as rare as this and not feel one's interest begin to wane. I scoped the shore line for other birds and found Dark bellied Brent Geese, Shelducks and Wigeon at the water's edge whilst Bar tailed Godwits, Oystercatchers, Curlews, Redshanks, Turnstones, Dunlins and even a single Knot probed the mud being exposed by the falling tide. A Greenshank called evocatively from far out in the estuary.

When we were driving down to Dawlish we had two objectives; to see the tern which was now achieved and the other to get some reasonable photos of it which was not going to happen unless we could get closer to the bird. The only way to do this would be via a boat but where to find such a thing?

We thought we had found the answer when via the internet we discovered Stuart Line Cruises based in Exmouth on the other side of the estuary that operate twice daily, hour long tours of the Exe Estuary.The first sailing was at 11am so I booked myself and Graham on it and a number of our fellow birders did likewise.

We all hoped this would get us nearer to the tern but unfortunately we were to learn that the tour was aimed more at general tourists and not specifically for birders and disappointingly it turned out to be a waste of time and money. Undeterred at this setback we spoke with some local birders on the boat shortly before we returned to the quay at Exmouth and asked if they knew of anyone with a small boat we could charter to take us out to the tern.

They directed us to Tom  who was a birder and also on the boat. He owned a small RIB  and we put our suggestion to him and being a birder and also keen to get a good photo of the tern, was up for it. He lived in Exmouth and suggested after we landed that Graham and myself go to a local cafe for a late breakfast and he would return in an hour with his RIB and we could set off from the slipway to try our luck with the tern.

An hour later we met up on the slipway and Tom prepared the RIB for sea and in no time at all we were heading for the moored craft and marker buoys we had seen from the shore earlier this morning.We were also fortunate with the weather which was benign with only a light wind and bright sunshine.

We cruised around the area the tern had been seen in but there was no sign of it.The last report was of it being perched on a mudbank but despite constantly scanning we could not see anything that looked like a tern. Rather than endlessly cruising about we moored the RIB to a buoy and waited for the tern to fly when it would become visible and we would know where it was.Wherever it currently was on its mudbank it was hidden but with the rising tide it would surely be pushed off and fly and that would be our chance.

For half an hour there was no sign of the tern as the tide slowly covered the mud and sand.

Then Graham gave a shout

There it is - its flying left!

Indeed it  was. Flying along the distant shoreline and then above and around the moored boats. It dived and caught a fish which it consumed on the wing before repeating its behaviour of earlier this morning by landing on another yellow buoy. This was perfect as we now knew where  it was, could keep an eye on it and best of all it would probably remain for quite some time perched on the buoy which would give us the opportunity to move closer to get some images.

Tom slowly and carefully manouevred the RIB closer but not so close that the tern would become alarmed.We took as many images of it as we wanted whilst the tern remained contentedly perched on the buoy.

We were now waiting and  hoping  for the tern to fly as a flight shot would be the ultimate photographic prize. It took a while but suddenly I saw it raise long slender wings, lift off the buoy and take to the air. 

However it could still go wrong but our luck held as the tern obligingly flew towards us and passing close overhead flew further up the estuary. 

We were not going to get better views than this and so, at 4pm made our way back to the shore and assisted Tom in dragging the RIB up the slipway.

Half an hour later we said farewell to Tom and headed for Bristol.

I was now feeling tired, very tired but nothing could dampen my spirits having seen the Lesser Crested Tern so well and added another species to my British List (541).

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